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Monthly Archives: May 2015

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The countdown is officially on for our tour de France next month! Oh lal la! I am already dreaming about wine & cheese, and have added French to my DuoLingo app. If you haven’t tried this language app yet, I definitely recommend it! It’s fun, it’s educational and it’s free! I used it a lot before our most recent trip to Costa Rica, and it definitely helped me out there.

With learning a language (or learning almost anything) it’s amazing what just a little bit of practice each day can do, consistency is key! I also really don’t want to be THAT American in France that can’t even say ‘hello’ ‘thank you’ or, most importantly ‘more wine please’.

Unfortunately I am probably going to be THAT American walking around in flip flops and sneakers the whole time, because all my fancy shoe money is going directly to travel. #priorites

This is going to be our first trip to France, and there is sooo much we want to see and do! Although 2 weeks sounds like a long time, I have no doubt it is going to fly by! Our itinerary has us in Paris for 4 days, then over to the Alps and then down to the South of France. I’m trying to research places/itineraries but there is just SO much. If anyone has any recommendations please send them my way!

On another note, I had to get my passport re-newed for this trip because of my recent name change, even though my old passport still had 2 good years left on it- such a pain! Even worse than having to pay to re-new it early, is losing all my current stamps/visas and getting to show off what a bad-ass world traveler I am… But THE WORST is having had to take a new passport photo. Man, those things are REALLY not flattering. Maybe the US government will get hip and start allowing selfies?

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Hello and Happy Spring! It’s been about exactly a month since I started on a Nutrition Cleanse run by a nutritionist in the Crossfit program at my gym.

The last 30 days very closely followed the Whole30 eating model. Basically eliminating foods that typically cause trouble: Processed Foods, grains, gluten, dariy, legumes, added Sugars, alcohol, etc. I stuck pretty close to the diet for a much as possible, though I did cheat a little bit here and there (traveling to California for a week-long work trip definitely tested all of my self-control, hunger and blood sugar levels).

Sure the California Coast off Highway 1 is beautiful, but I’m still HANGRY!

I did eat more whole foods (think veggies, fruits, eggs) than I’ve probably eaten in the past 5 years of my life combined- no joke. I generally consider myself a pretty healthy eater, but boy was this eye-opening!! I really didn’t realize how much I deferred to/ depended on processed foods and junk food until I tried to cut it out. I had to cook, to wash pots and pans, to peel an orange (why is orange peeling SUCH a big thing for me? I can’t even begin to explain the amount of motivation I need to muster in order to peel an orange most days). The first week I had a headache that no amount of Advil could cure (I blame this mostly on cutting out coffee cold-turkey. I have since brought caffeine back in, but normally opt for green tea or iced tea, and do not need coffee to function in the morning. This is a big breakthrough and my stomach can not thank me enough).

In addition to my stomach feeling great, my workouts have also been feeling more energized. I’m running a little faster (PR’d in a 5k this weekend!) and feeling stronger and more flexible during yoga practices.

That being said, this sort of cleanse is not for the weary. It takes a lot of time to food shop and prep, and also as we all know healthy foods are not always cheap -though I buy on sale whenever possible, if you’re really eating clean, eating sustainably/organic is also very important. It also caused me to have a little social panic when it would come time to go out to eat or eat at someone else’s house (how awkward is it to BYOD – Bring Your Own Dinner).

I’m relieved that the 30 days is over and that I survived, but I’m also a little nervous not having this strict regiment to follow! What I do know is that I will no longer be a slave to simple carbs/excess sugar/caffeine, and that I will continue to eat a sweet potato and eggs for breakfast over a bagel with cream cheese (almost) everyday.